The Best You: The Politics of Self Optimization


Book Description

Do you know what negative liberty is? It's when the powers-that-be say, "Solve your own problems. Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. Don't expect us to help you. Make your own way in life. Succeed in a system that was never designed for YOU to succeed, but for those that run the system. US. The In Crowd. The Inner Circle. Our success is guaranteed. It's baked in. Why would we care about you? You're not one of us. You're not part of our family. You're not one of our friends or cronies. There are only a few good jobs in the world, and we've reserved them all. That's the entire point of the system. Sheez, haven't you worked that out yet? Dumb asses." Wouldn't you rather live in a positive liberty system where the whole point of the State is to ensure you get everything you need to make the most of yourself, to maximize your potential, to be the best you? What is the best world? It's the world where every person is the best version of themselves.




Desperately Seeking Self-improvement


Book Description

A highly-entertaining account of two young professors attempt to improve themselves through the techniques of the burgeoning self-optimization movement, including drugs, surgical implants, the administering of electric shocks and stripping naked in public.




Better Life and NLP


Book Description

How to better control your own thinking and thereby change your actions and behavior? How to improve your quality of life and achieve better results in life? Our quality of life is formed by what meaning we give to things in our life, what kind of choices we make and how we act in different situations. By controlling our thinking and mind, we also control our behavior and the meaning we give to things. This book contains ideas, instructions and techniques for life management and self-leadership. The different chapters of the book introduce the reader to the use of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, NLP, through different topics. This book doesn't tell you what you should think or how you should act, because it all depends on your goals and what you value. Instead, this book teaches you how you can make the changes you want in your thinking and, through that, bring about concrete changes to improve your quality of life. The purpose of this book is to arouse thoughts and insights in the reader, because without them our minds will not be motivated to look for new solutions. In addition, this book introduces a whole bunch of different techniques and methods that will help you move forward on your path guided by your insights. This book also offers plenty of new thoughts and insights, guiding you towards the things you want in your life.




Human Interests


Book Description

Philosophical anthropology is the philosophical study of the conditions of human existence and the issues that confront people in the conduct of their everyday lives. This book surveys, from a contemplative, philosophical point of view, a wide variety of human-interest issues, including happiness, luck, aging, the meaning of life, optimism and pessimism, morality, and faith and belief. The author's deliberations blend historical, theoretical, and personal perspectives into philosophical appreciation of the human condition. The philosophers of Greek antiquity took philosophy to center around just this issue of intelligent living - of determining the nature of life under the guidance of reason. Such a perspective puts philosophical agenda - a position it contested with the philosophy of nature throughout classical antiquity. In more recent times, however, its prominence has declined - no doubt, the author suggests, because modern man's achievements have been more notable in the natural than in the human science.




Trick Mirror


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “From The New Yorker’s beloved cultural critic comes a bold, unflinching collection of essays about self-deception, examining everything from scammer culture to reality television.”—Esquire Book Club Pick for Now Read This, from PBS NewsHour and The New York Times • “A whip-smart, challenging book.”—Zadie Smith • “Jia Tolentino could be the Joan Didion of our time.”—Vulture FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE’S JOHN LEONARD PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOK • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY AND HARVARD CRIMSON AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Time • Chicago Tribune • The Washington Post • NPR • Variety • Esquire • Vox • Elle • Glamour • GQ • Good Housekeeping • The Paris Review • Paste • Town & Country • BookPage • Kirkus Reviews • BookRiot • Shelf Awareness Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity. Trick Mirror is an enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives. This is a book about the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly through a culture that revolves around the self. In each essay, Tolentino writes about a cultural prism: the rise of the nightmare social internet; the advent of scamming as the definitive millennial ethos; the literary heroine’s journey from brave to blank to bitter; the punitive dream of optimization, which insists that everything, including our bodies, should become more efficient and beautiful until we die. Gleaming with Tolentino’s sense of humor and capacity to elucidate the impossibly complex in an instant, and marked by her desire to treat the reader with profound honesty, Trick Mirror is an instant classic of the worst decade yet. FINALIST FOR THE PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD FOR THE ART OF THE ESSAY




Win the Leadership Game Every Time


Book Description

Far away in the jungle of Africa every morning a deer wakes up and decides to run faster than the fastest lion in that jungle. In the same jungle every morning a lion wakes up and decides to run faster than the fattest deer in that jungle. Both the deer and the lion wake up with the aim to win. The deer wants to win to save its life. The lion wants to win to satisfy its hunger. They each have their reason to win. They are in the game for winning. None of them know whether or not they will win, yet they decide each day to win. Are you in the leadership game to win or are you just a player in the game? Do you wake up each morning deciding to win or do you wake up to go to work and simply complete your tasks? There is a huge difference between going to work to win and going to work to just be in the game. It is this difference that decides where each of us is on the growth ladder and where we will be. Those who are here to just be in the game are very concerned about their paycheck and job security. They fear taking risks and are overly cautious. These people view the game as an "I win, you lose" proposition. But those leaders who play to win, do whatever is necessary to move things forward. They’re not reckless, but proactive. They make the call that they fear. They have difficult conversations. They deal with the tricky issues that may put their outcomes at risk if things go south on them. These are the people who wake up each morning with the will to win. They know that winning has nothing to do with power, status quo, position, or playing corporate politics. Winning is purely about being relentless and moving ahead in the game by focusing on your improvement and on the well-being of others. Winning is about having faith in yourself and in your abilities. Almost 75% of the people in the workforce get stuck at the mid-management level in the organization. These people have the best skills and abilities, yet aren’t able to move the needle significantly. This is because they don’t know what it takes to win and get unstuck. The purpose of the nine crucial laws described in this book is to guide you to methodologically win the leadership game. There are two ways of winning the game. One, by playing dirty corporate politics, bumping others to reach your goal, thinking solely about your growth, and being selfish. Another and better way is to work on transforming yourself so you improve in the game each day. The rules of business are changing. The game is evolving with speed. New markets are emerging. A new generation of workforce is entering the game. We have entered into a digitally transformed world. The new leadership game cannot be played with old rules and competencies. Working with some great leaders has shown me how a leader can move with agility, speed and flexibility to revamp the organization when faced with a business crisis. A leaders decisive and bold actions and their rapid and insightful response to crisis demonstrated the value of speed and serenity in setting a new course for their company. What are the new rules and competencies? How do we play and win the leadership game, every time?




Deconstructing the Interview


Book Description

Succeeding at a clinical interview is a critical hurdle you will face throughout your training requiring you to demonstrate confidence, professionalism, and strong communication skills. Deconstructing the Interview takes a fresh approach to passing interviews, by examining the processes which underline successful interview performances. Instead of focusing on checklists of information, this book looks at factors for success in all interviews and helps you develop key strategies and skills that will enable success in any interview. Packed full of advice, practical tips, real-life anecdotes, and exercises; this book will provide you with skills to prepare for your interview and perform at your best. It also explores learning to cope with anxiety and how to benefit from failure so that you can perform even better next time. Ideal for health practitioners at all levels of training and all specialties, including medical or dental students, trainees, and consultants, nurses, and midwives; Deconstructing the Interview is full of practical advice to increase your confidence and improve your chances of success in any interview throughout your career.







Optimize Yourself


Book Description

Are you currently getting the most out of your life? Are you achieving your dreams and striving to be the best you can be or are you stuck in a comfort zone and just plodding along? Are you operating at 100%? In this fantastic insight into great achievers, you will learn what the best of the best do to achieve extraordinary success in their lives. Learn how world class athletes achieve high levels of success, how successful business men and women manage to succeed beyond their wildest imaginations, learn from the greatest achievers throughout history. Learn how to construct your day to day life to have more energy, vitality, positivity and productivity so you too can perform like a professional athlete in pursuit of your life goals. Do NOT waste another minute, grab life by the horns, grab this book and unleash your true potential on the World. What are you waiting for? "Martin is living proof that it doesnt matter where you start or how much fear you have, with the right attitude you can achieve anything you want. Martin's book captures this perfectly with some great examples from his own life and many other successful people from history" NIGEL RISNER Author of The IMPACT Code




The Philosophy of Dare: Are You One of the Daring Ones?


Book Description

The Philosophy of Dare, the Daring Philosophy, is all about being willing to take risks, to rise to challenges, to leave behind comfort zones and safe spaces, and seek out storms and wildernesses and mountaintops and all extreme, daring environments. One must always escape mediocrity, and wherever the mediocre congregate. Mediocrity is the original sin. The mediocre are the opposite of the daring. Danton said, "We must dare, and dare again, and go on daring!" Machiavelli said, "Never was anything great achieved without danger." Andre Gide said, "Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." The daring don't stand around. They're active, proactive, the people doing things, making things happen, shaking things up. They're not the reactive masses, those that love to sit and wait for Godot. Godot isn't coming. Haven't you heard? William Makepeace Thackeray said, "Let the man who has to make his fortune in life remember this maxim. Attacking is his only secret. Dare, and the world always yields: or, if it beat you sometimes, dare again, and it will succumb." The attackers always have the initiative. The world reacts to them. The daring decide the agenda. They force the issue. They are the organ grinders. Everyone else dances to the tune of the daring ones. "Who Dares Wins" is the motto of the Special Air Service, Britain's elite special forces unit. Theodore Roosevelt said, "Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." The mediocrities avoid conflict. They duck out. They bale out. They opt out. They don't want to exert themselves. Too much effort. Are you afraid of losing it all? Then you are not one of the daring. Goethe said, "Rest not. Life is sweeping by; go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time." The daring are absolutely committed to leaving behind the mighty and sublime. They are the only ones who conquer time. They are the immortals. The great French revolutionary Saint-Just said, "Dare! – this word contains all the politics of our revolution." Will you risk it all? Do you dare? Trigger Warning (for those of a sensitive disposition): This content contains heavy satire, irony, sarcasm and black comedy. Keep your wits about you.